LifeStyle

The real price of running an out of date office – evolve or become obsolete.

Work is a function not a place and more than ever before our work follows us home and wherever we are. This new way of working is called anywhere working.

Gone are the days that emails can only be read and sent from within the walls of your company’s office. Today people read and respond to emails from their smart phones and tablets and laptops wherever they happen to be!

People are reading and responding to work related emails outside of the office hours, even at the weekend. We have all done it you’re smiling now because you know I’m right!

So what is “anywhere working”?

It’s quite simple really, it’s the ability for employees to work from anywhere on any device at any time.

Business as it is today

Right now departments are often working in isolation away from each other and more importantly the management team are as well. Work is confined to the four walls of peoples offices and meetings are the only time when departments and management all talk in the same room.

Outside of the office, management have limited access to their business systems and employees normally have email only or they are using older technology which is slow or means remembering to leave their work PC on.

The workplace of tomorrow

So what does the future hold for the office? Why not follow the lead of Microsoft or Macquarie Bank who have redesigned their offices to take advantage of technology and enable anywhere working. Their employees do not have desks. They work from anywhere.

Employees of Macquarie Bank who responded to a post occupancy survey after running with this way of working was asked the following question; would you prefer to return to your old way of working? 93% said no. There was also 30% more engagement among teams.

Have you heard of the concept BYOD (Bring your own device)? Basically this means employees can bring whatever device they like to work on. Any laptop or Apple Mac, even tablets. So employees work wherever it works best for them and on whatever device that they enjoy working on.

So how would anywhere working help me?

Two things: cost and productivity.

Did you know the average cost of running a desk for business in the UK is £12,000 a year and that they are only occupied around 52% of the time?

It’s tough out there economically right now and every penny and every minute counts. That’s why when your employees’ PCs are running slow or, worse, the server falls over yet again, productivity nosedives. Your business cannot afford that downtime and loss of productivity.

Why not check it out for your company. How often are desks left empty and for how long? Could you reduce the number of desks you run and have some as hot desks?

Or do away with desks completely, or, at least do away with desk ownership?

Mad?

Microsoft, Macquarie Bank, Google and countless others don’t think so.

In terms of increased productivity by not owning a desk and having more break out spaces those that are in the office will work wherever suits best either in a quiet space or in communal areas. This will enable better collaboration and will bring teams closer together to exchange ideas.

So what about outside of the office? Well with anywhere working you can work well…..anywhere.

Using you device of choice you can work exactly as if you were in the office.

Work from home, on the road or even in a Starbucks wherever it makes sense.

Could your sales team benefit by always being connected to the office?

Could delivery drivers have a more active role if they could check stock or arrange returns using a mobile device?

Geographical boundaries are being stretched.

How do we provide anywhere access on any device?

The least onerous way of achieving this is with a Hosted desktop which means you can access the very same desktop and applications as you do in the office, and that you can do this on any device if you have broadband or a 3G connection.

There is no expensive IT equipment to buy and no flashy software. It’s a service you subscribe to and only pay for however many users you have.

Employees using their own devices and the need to work from outside the office is very real. Those that adapt will become more agile than their competitors that remain within 4 walls.

Would you consider working this way? If not drop us a line below to tell us why you wouldn’t?